The climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is due to land in the Utah desert, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.
Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable.
"This sample return is really historic," NASA scientist Amy Simon told AFP."This is going to be the biggest sample we've brought back since the Apollo moon rocks" were returned to Earth.Osiris-Rex is set to release the capsule—from an altitude of more than 67,000 miles —some four hours before it lands.
Its rapid descent, monitored by army sensors, will be slowed by two successive parachutes. Should they fail to deploy correctly, a"hard landing" would follow. Once the tire-sized capsule touches down in Utah, a team in protective masks and gloves will place it in a net to be airlifted by helicopter to a temporary"clean room" nearby.NASA wants this done as quickly and carefully as possible to avoid any contamination of the sample with desert sands, skewing test results.
They"can give us clues about how the solar system formed and evolved," said Osiris-Rex program executive Melissa Morris.By striking Earth's surface,"we do believe asteroids and comets deliveredScientists believe Bennu, which is 1,640 feet in diameter, is rich in carbon—a building block of life on Earth—and contains water molecules locked in minerals.
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